Quite accidentally stumbled upon this interesting old Wired article from 1995 about Ken Thompson, often affectionately referred to as “The Father of UNIX“, and what sounds very much like the burgeoning of the digital music “revolution” we’re currently wading through. The article is even more interesting considering what has happened with p2p in recent years, what is currently happening with the established music distribution industry in it’s death-throws and with the ongoing Grokster case still being fought through the courts in a battle to save the famous betamax ruling.
Sounds like they’re talking about PAC. You’ve probably heard audio compressed by it if you’ve ever listened to digital radio - Lucent are (obviously) big in that space. Google Perceptual Audio Coder or IBOC (In Band On Channel) for more. Doesn’t really have any bearing on the p2p side of things, IMO. The system they’re describing is an old-school top-down delivery model, like the iTunes store.